The present invention relates to executing electronic contract on NFC enabled mobile devices.
One of the key goals of Near Field Communications (NFC) technology is to enable mobile and contactless payments. In the typical use case, a vendor will have an NFC enabled reader and a user will swipe their NFC-enabled phone against the reader in order to effect a transaction against an electronic “wallet” persisted on the phone. In an alternative use case scenario, two participants in a transaction will place their respective devices against the other and transfer cash from the electronic wallet of one person to the other.
However, there are many transactions that are not simply the exchange of monetary value but also require contracts to be exchanged or signed. For example, the purchase of an item may require agreement to extended warranty terms, rental agreement for a vehicle, or there may be transactions that do not involve any monetary aspect but are simply contractual—such as a commitment to buy something at a later date or a rental agreement for a property. NFC standards currently have nothing to offer in these areas.